Internet-era home TV juggernaut-tuned-studio Netflix has just unleashed the first trailer for its feature film sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and it would be remiss of us not to mention it here.
The film stars martial arts superstars Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen and is directed by veteran action director Yuen Woo-ping. Rounding out the cast is Harry Shum Jr. (from Glee), Jason Scott Lee (Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story), Roger Yuan (Bulletproof Monk), Eugenia Yuan (The Eye 2, Memoirs of a Geisha), JuJu Chan, Chris Pang, Shuya Chang and Natasha Liu Bordizzo. As an aside, I think this is Donnie Yen and Michelle Yeoh’s first film together since 1994’s Wing Chun.
Here’s the trailer:
This is going to be one to watch, not only because it’s a much-anticipated sequel to an international blockbuster, but because of Netflix’s involvement. Although it looks like the film has some distribution at IMAX cinemas overseas (I can’t find any suggestion that we will be able to see it on the big screen here in Australia), the way the vast majority of people will see it is via its global simultaneous release on Netflix on 26 February 2016.
What this bodes for the business of movie making and distribution is anyone’s guess (and I’m sure there have been some very serious guessers at work in the industry for some time now), but it will be fascinating to see how it pans out.